Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience.

The Trump administration released its 2020 budget request on Monday, proposing major cuts to federal government spending. While the cuts are unlikely to become reality — Congress has rejected many of Trump’s previous requests — the budget is an important signal of the administration’s priorities and suggests a major funding fight in October.

Proposed changes to funding in Trump’s budget

EPA

-31%

-24%

State & USAID

-19%

Transportation

-16%

HUD

-15%

Agriculture

-14%

Interior

-12%

HHS

-12%

Education

-11%

Energy

-10%

Labor

-2%

Justice

-2%

NASA

-2%

Treasury

+5%

Defense

+7%

Commerce

+7%

Homeland Security

+8%

Veterans Affairs

-31%

Environmental Protection Agency

-24%

State and USAID

-19%

Transportation

-16%

Housing and Urban Development

-15%

Agriculture

-14%

Interior

-12%

Health and Human Services

-12%

Education

-11%

Energy

-10%

Labor

-2%

Justice

-2%

NASA

-2%

Treasury

+5%

Defense

+7%

Commerce

+7%

Homeland Security

+8%

Veterans Affairs

In the document, Trump calls for large budget increases to defense and border security alongside substantial cuts to government benefits. Trump’s budget proposal for the last fiscal year similarly proposed increased defense spending and cuts to other departments. Congress did not act on many of his recommendations. The budget is likely to face even more of an uphill battle with Democrats now in control of the House.

Key proposed additions

Adds more than $33 billion to the Department of Defense budget, for a total of $718 billion, 57 percent of the proposed federal discretionary budget

Allocates $8.6 billion to build sections of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, on top of the close to $7 billion Trump already announced in his national emergency declaration

Sets aside $750 million to establish a paid parental leave program and $1 billion for a one-time fund to help underserved populations and encourage company investment in child-care

Commits $291 million toward ending the spread of HIV in the United States within a decade, a promise Trump made in his State of the Union last month

Key proposed cuts

Cuts $845 billion over the next 10 years from Medicare, the federal program that provides health insurance to older Americans

Removes $241 billion from Medicaid, the health-care program for low-income Americans, over the next decade as part of an overhaul that shifts more power to states

Slashes $220 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade, with proposed reforms including mandatory work requirements and food box delivery service in lieu of cash benefits for low-income families

Reductions to the federal student loan programs that total $207 billion in the next 10 years and include eliminating Public Service Loan Forgiveness and subsidized student loans

Below are descriptions of the administration’s budget proposals for most major federal agencies. While mandatory spending programs — which account for over 60 percent of the federal budget — like Medicare and food stamps are discussed, the budget number does not include these programs.

Detailed funding changes by agency

Back to top

Agriculture Department

2019 budget

$24.4B

2020 proposal

$20.8B

Change from '19

-$3.6B

$1 billion

The Trump administration is seeking to cut the Department of Agriculture’s discretionary budget by $3.6 billion, or 15 percent from the 2019 estimate, while also slashing by $17.4 billion the funds available to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps). The budget would also reduce federal crop insurance subsidies, with a projected savings of $22.1 billion by 2029, and cut spending for conservation programs and foreign food aid. The subsidies protect farmers against loss of crops due to natural disasters or loss of revenue because of declines in the prices of agricultural commodities.

The budget requests $5.8 billion total to serve food stamp participants and reintroduces the proposal for a Blue Apron-style food box delivery service in lieu of cash benefits for low-income families that was widely rejected by food assistance experts when President Trump proposed it in 2018.

Back to top

Commerce Department

2019 budget

$11.4B

2020 proposal

$12.2B

Change from '19

+$0.8B

$1 billion

The president is requesting $12.2 billion for the Commerce Department, a 7 percent increase from the current year estimate. New weather satellite development would receive $1.2 billion while research on advanced technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence would get $688 million.

In order to make sufficient funding available for the 2020 Census, which helps determine localities’ shares of $675 billion in annual federal cash, the department proposes to eliminate or cut several grant programs. The Economic Development Administration, created in 1965 to promote economic activity in distressed areas, would be eliminated. Also on the chopping block is government support for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, a public-private initiative.

The budget also includes $16 million for trade-related programs, including a new International Trade Administration initiative to crack down on companies that try to evade U.S. trade penalties.

Back to top

Defense Department

2019 budget

$685.0B

2020 proposal

$718.3B

Change from '19

+$33.3B

$1 billion

Under the requested budget, the Department of Defense would receive $718 billion in 2020, a 4.9 percent increase over the prior year. The entire national defense budget, which includes money for defense-related activities at other federal agencies, including the National Nuclear Security Administration, would be $750 billion, a 34 percent increase from the prior year. Among other priorities, the Pentagon money is slated to go to the creation of a U.S. Space Force, a 3.1 percent pay increase for the military, and investments in hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence and autonomous weaponry. It continues investments in a vast modernization of the American nuclear arsenal. The defense budget includes more than $9 billion “as an emergency requirement to address border security and hurricane recovery.”

Back to top

Education Department

2019 budget

$70.8B

2020 proposal

$62.0B

Change from '19

-$8.8B

$1 billion

The budget requests $62 billion for the Education Department, a 12 percent decrease from what was enacted for 2019. The Trump administration wants to pull out $2 billion from the reserves for the Pell Grant program, the primary source of federal grant aid for millions of students whose families typically earn less than $60,000 a year. Advocacy groups say raiding the reserves could jeopardize the grant program in the future.

Back to top

Energy Department

2019 budget

$35.5B

2020 proposal

$31.7B

Change from '19

-$3.8B

$1 billion

President Trump's budget request for the Energy Department seeks to boost coal and nuclear energy, while making cuts to programs intended to foster renewable energy and combat climate change.

For instance, the administration proposes a significant cut for the agency's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) — $696 million in the coming fiscal year, compared to roughly $2.4 billion that was approved in 2019. Meanwhile, the White House proposed increasing the budget for the Office of Fossil Energy Research & Development to $562 million, a bump of $60 million. It also proposed a $67 million increase for the agency's Office of Nuclear Energy, up to $824 million annually. The budget also proposes $23.7 billion for various national security programs within the agency, including $8 billion to sustain and modernize the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

Back to top

Department of Health and Human Services

2019 budget

$99.5B

2020 proposal

$87.1B

Change from '19

-$12.4B

$1 billion

The Health and Human Services budget once again attempts to tilt Medicaid in a conservative direction, moving from its half-century history as an entitlement program into a series of finite block grants to states, while eliminating the program’s expansion under the Affordable Care Act. The spending plan would slow Medicare spending by $845 billion over the next decade, largely by changing payments to hospitals and doctors and renewing efforts to lessen fraud and abuse. The budget would devote $291 million as the first installment of a presidential commitment to stop the spread of HIV within a decade, and would continue investment in curbing the opioid epidemic. But it would slash the National Institutes of Health’s funding by about 12 percent, and the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by about 10 percent.
Trump proposes big cuts to health programs for poor, elderly and disabled

Back to top

Department of Homeland Security

2019 budget

$48.1B

2020 proposal

$51.7B

Change from '19

+$3.6B

$1 billion

The Trump administration proposed $51.7 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, a 7.8 percent increase, excluding current funding for overseas contingency operations. Immigration security remains a top priority, with billions earmarked for a border wall, more detention beds and over 2,800 additional immigration agents and other staff. The budget also would create a “Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Fund,” to meet the president’s goals of dramatically increasing immigration jails and enforcement. The budget also sets aside $19.4 billion to aid American communities hit by major disasters.

Back to top

Department of Housing and Urban Development

2019 budget

$52.7B

2020 proposal

$44.1B

Change from '19

-$8.6B

$1 billion

Trump proposed an $8.6 billion cut for the Department of Housing and Urban Development for 2020, a 16.4 percent decrease from the 2019 estimate that includes eliminating the Community Development Block Grant program and as well as capital improvement funds for public housing repairs.

The four-decade-old community block grant program, popular among congressional Democrats and Republicans, provides cities with money for affordable housing and other community needs, such as fighting blight, improving infrastructure and delivering food to homebound seniors. The administration, in its budget documents, said the program has “failed to demonstrate effectiveness.”

As in previous years, the administration is also calling for bolstered work requirements for families receiving federal housing assistance to promote “self-sufficiency.”

Back to top

Interior Department

2019 budget

$14.5B

2020 proposal

$12.5B

Change from '19

-$2.0B

$1 billion

The president’s budget requests $12.5 billion for the Interior Department, $2 billion less than 2019, a 14 percent decrease. It would eliminate economic development grants that help municipalities recover from disruptive mining operations on public lands. The budget would reduce funding to acquire and preserve land. Interior’s priority will be the president’s signature ambition: energy development on land and offshore, and former secretary Ryan Zinke’s bid to shift much of the department’s management from the District to the West. It provides just under $300 million to help whittle down the National Park Service’s massive $12 billion backlog for fixing buildings and roads.

Back to top

Justice Department

2019 budget

$29.9B

2020 proposal

$29.2B

Change from '19

-$0.7B

$1 billion

The Trump administration proposed a 2.3 percent reduction in the Justice Department's budget, much of that money coming from grant programs like COPS, which pays for local police agencies to hire new officers. The White House budget plan for the Justice Department in 2020 prioritizes spending for national security, cyber security, immigration enforcement, combating violent crime and addressing the opioid epidemic.

Like last year, the Trump administration proposes shifting part of the work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives away. Under the proposal, alcohol and tobacco enforcement would move to the Treasury Department so that ATF could focus more on guns, explosives and arson.​ The same proposal was made last year and went nowhere in Congress.

Back to top

Labor Department

2019 budget

$12.1B

2020 proposal

$10.9B

Change from '19

-$1.2B

$1 billion

Overall, the budget asks Congress for $10.9 billion for the Labor Department, a 9.7 percent decrease from 2019’s budget.

The budget plans calls for saving money on unemployment insurance benefits by cracking down on fraud or abuse within the program. It also calls for a reorganization of job corps program that aims to train disadvantaged youth for future employment. Under the administration’s proposal, the Labor Department would have more flexibility to close centers that aren’t producing results.

The budget also calls for the consolidation of the country’s statistic agencies that calculate measures of economic health such as the gross domestic product and the monthly jobs and unemployment reports. Under the plan, the Bureau of Labor Statistics would be moved into the Commerce Department, joining the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau.

Back to top

State Department and USAID

2019 budget

$52.5B

2020 proposal

$40.0B

Change from '19

-$12.5B

$1 billion

The proposed budget would slash the budget for foreign aid and diplomacy by 23 percent, to $40 billion for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Though steep, the proposed cuts are not as deep as the 30 percent cuts recommended a year ago and 32 percent proposed for the previous year. Foreign aid enjoys wide bipartisan support, and Congress largely restored most of the cuts proposed by the White House in the previous years.

Back to top

Transportation Department

2019 budget

$26.5B

2020 proposal

$21.4B

Change from '19

-$5.1B

$1 billion

The 2020 Department of Transportation budget requests $21.4 billion in discretionary spending, down from $26.5 billion in FY 2019. The proposal calls for cutting funds for long-distance Amtrak routes and shifting responsibly for them to states, “while providing robust intercity bus service to currently underserved rural areas via a partnership between Amtrak and bus operators.” Separate grants to Amtrak for the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor, stretching from Washington to Boston, would be cut in half, dropping from $650 million in 2019 to $325.5 million in 2020. More than $1 billion would be cut from the Capital Investment Grants program, which goes toward funding major rail, commuter rail and other transit projects.

Back to top

Treasury Department

2019 budget

$12.9B

2020 proposal

$12.7B

Change from '19

-$0.2B

$1 billion

The White House is asking for $12.7 billion for the Treasury Department, approximately a 1 percent decrease in funding from the previous year.

The White House is asking for new investments in the Internal Revenue Service, which is part of the Treasury Department. The budget calls for $15 billion in new IRS funding to beef up tax enforcement, which the administration estimates would generate an additional $47 billion in new revenue over the next 10 years, thus shrinking the deficit overall.

The administration's budget also includes $300 million in new funding to revamp the information technology systems at the IRS, some of which are decades old and have struggled to properly process payments on Tax Day.

The administration's budget for the Treasury Department also proposes changes to the administrative structure of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. It also seeks to push more Treasury functions to be executed electronically, as the department still issues about 56 million paper checks annually.

Back to top

Department of Veterans Affairs

2019 budget

$90.2B

2020 proposal

$97.0B

Change from '19

+$6.8B

$1 billion

The White House is proposing a 7.5 percent boost to the Department of Veterans Affairs, to $97 billion. This includes an increase of close to 10 percent for medical care for veterans, much of it to implement a law Congress passed last year to consolidate private-care programs outside VA and make private doctors easier for veterans to access.

Other new spending would continue the agency’s massive modernization of its electronic health records, add mental-health services for suicide prevention and expand medical services to female veterans.

Back to top

Environmental Protection Agency

2019 budget

$8.8B

2020 proposal

$6.1B

Change from '19

-$2.7B

$1 billion

The Environmental Protection Agency once again found itself in the Trump administration’s crosshairs, with the White House proposing to slash its budget by 31 percent.

The $2.8 billion proposed cut, which would leave the agency a budget of $6.1 billion, is in line with the previous deep reductions that the administration has sought each year under President Trump. So far, Congress has been unwilling to go along, keeping EPA’s budget largely stable.

Back to top

NASA

2019 budget

$21.5B

2020 proposal

$21.0B

Change from '19

-$0.5B

$1 billion

NASA faces a modest cut — 2.3 percent lower than the agency’s 2019 funding, which was approved last month by Congress. The $21 billion for NASA is more than the Trump administration asked for last year, as NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine pointed out Monday in a statement describing the fiscal 2020 budget as “one of the strongest on record for our storied agency.” Bridenstine said the budget keeps NASA on track for putting humans on the moon again by 2028.

The proposed NASA budget does not include money for a new space telescope, WFIRST, which would look for distant planets and study the mysterious “dark energy” permeating the cosmos. Two Earth science missions aimed at understanding climate would be eliminated, as would an educational effort, the Office of STEM Engagement.

Kevin Uhrmacher is a graphics editor for politics at The Washington Post. His work includes mapping trends in election results, analyzing data about President Trump’s political appointees and explaining the impact of congressional policies. He joined The Post in 2014 as a news designer.

Jeff Stein is a policy reporter for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, Stein was a congressional reporter for Vox, where he wrote primarily about the Democratic Party and the left. In 2014, he founded the local news nonprofit the Ithaca Voice in Upstate New York.

About this story

Numbers from the Office of Management and Budget. Totals may not add up because of rounding. Numbers for some departments, including NASA, may differ from the White House budget document, which sometimes used 2019 estimates rather than recently enacted budget levels. The proposed budget for the State Department and USAID were provided directly by the agency, and the enacted total represents fiscal 2018, the most recent year a comparable figure was available. The VA totals were also provided by the agency. The 2019 total for Homeland Security does not include Overseas Contingency Operations.